The BUC archiving project was born out of a concern for the great store of historical Adventist Church information which now exists, either in some physical format or simply in the memories of church members. As time goes on much of this valuable information is being lost. Simple measures taken now could help to preserve our heritage and build up a valuable witness to future generations of how God has led His people in the past.
Following discussions with Newbold College Library these noble sentiments have been put into more concrete terms and we have come up with the following guidelines and suggestions:
1. Don't throw anything away. Thanks to space being made available by Newbold College Library we are willing to take all kinds of items that may be of interest to those carrying out historical research. For example we would be interested in: old letters, photographs, manuscripts, magazines, church records, Sabbath School report books, tithe records, minutes, and diaries, as well as campaign programmes, posters, pamphlets, and other ephemera.
2. Do as much background work on your collection as you can before sending it in. Remember that you are the expert when it comes to identifying faces in photographs, participants in evangelistic campaigns, local church officers in years gone by, recipients of letters, and the like. Names, dates, places, and events are the key things. If a researcher can have this information jotted down and attached to the relevant items it could speed her or his work tremendously.
3. Don't forget your personal memoirs, stories and recollections. The knowledge that exists only in your memory is perhaps the most valuable of all. If there is any way that you can get even a small amount of this knowledge recorded it could be a wonderful resource in the future. There are many ways that you can record your memories including: writing (preferably typing or even word-processing), recording to audiotape, and recording to video. From the archivist's point of view typed or word-processed material is the easiest to deal with, but in time audio and video material can also be transcribed and indexed. You may need an assistant to help with the information recording process, whatever medium you choose.
4. Send your materials to Newbold College Library. When you have decided what materials you are willing to give, package them up and send them (or preferably have someone take them) to the following address:
Newbold College Library (Archive)
St Mark's Road
Binfield, BRACKNELL
Berkshire RG42 4AN
England
Phone: 01344 407441
Note: Make sure that you really are happy for the materials to go to the Library. We wouldn't want relatives or other interested parties who might have wanted them, to be upset.
5. Permission. If you do send in materials for historical research don't forget to send a note giving permission for the material to be used. A suggested form is included at the bottom of this page. Just copy it out, enter your name in the first line and then sign and date at the bottom, before enclosing with your materials. If there is sensitive information in the material you submit, perhaps regarding people still living, please give us details and we will arrange suitable safeguards.
I, ________ ________ , give the enclosed materials to Newbold College Library for the purposes of historical research and am willing for them to be indexed and made available to interested parties. The materials may also be stored in electronic format if required. In addition I give my permission for the materials to be reproduced or published in any format under the guidance of Newbold College and the British Union Conference.
Signed: ____________________
Date: ____________________